This first chapter of this book will introduce you to the world of containers and their orchestration. The book starts from the beginning, assuming no prior knowledge in the area of containers, and will give you a very practical introduction into the topic.

In this chapter, we are focusing on the software supply chain and the friction within it. We then present containers as a means to reduce this friction and add enterprise-grade security on top of it. In this chapter, we also look into how containers and the ecosystem around them are assembled. We specifically point out the distinction between the upstream Operations Support System (OSS) components, united under the code name Moby, that form the building blocks of the downstream products of Docker and other vendors.

The chapter covers the following topics:

• What are containers?
• Why are containers important?
• What's the benefit for me or for my company?
• The Moby project
• Docker products
• The container ecosystem
• Container architecture 

After completing this module, you will be able to:

• Explain in a few simple sentences to an interested layman what containers are, using an analogy such as physical containers
• Justify to an interested layman why containers are so important, using an analogy such as physical containers versus traditional shipping, or apartment homes versus single family homes, and so on
• Name at least four upstream open source components that are used by the Docker products, such as Docker for Mac/Windows
• Identify at least three Docker products